Rating: 
Summary: SOMEDAY...
Review: ...Brian DePalma will jolt us with his albeit derivative but amazing directorial skills he evidenced in CARRIE, BLOWOUT, BODY DOUBLE and DRESSED TO KILL
...Gary Sinise will look like he's involved in a film and his makeup artist will stop trying to orient him...
...Tim Robbins will win an Oscar, not for this film but for MYSTIC RIVER..
...Jerry O'Connell will stop being cute and try to mature as an actor, the talent's there..somebody just needs to tell him..
...Don Cheadle will stop playing Larry King...
...Ennio Morricone will once again give us a memorable musical score..
...people will appreciate this gorgeously filmed movie for what it is, science fiction..
It's entertaining and what more could ask?
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, wrong tone
Review: The revelation which caps "Mission To Mars" is a stunning one and deserves to be part of a much better film. Setting aside the miserably lazy lapses in science (forgivable in most sci-fi films but distracting in a story which concerns itself with the real possibility of colonising Mars), the main problem with this film is that it never gets emotionally real. When it isn't hamstrung by lame dialogue and transparent tugs at the heartstrings, it's distracting us with De Palma's gee-whiz camera moves and Morricone's insistently - and, as it turns out, ironically - epic score. Despite the grandness of its concept and a rapidly mounting death toll, this film never gets into the chilling territory of insoluble mysteries and our ultimate cosmic insignificance - the heart of great sci-fi which Kubrick aced with "2001: A Space Odyssey" and which distinguishes such otherwise forgettable outings as "Event Horizon", "A.I." and even "The Black Hole". "Mission To Mars" just doesn't have the right tone. It narrates an epic adventure of mankind and a revelation which changes the very nature of what it means to be human, but it plays like an episode of "Lost In Space." To be fair, the fault isn't so much De Palma's as the screenplay's. It's so resolutely old-fashioned and the finale ties everything up with such Spielbergian niceness that it's impossible to forget you're actually watching a movie. When is someone going to make a sci-fi film that tells it like it probably will be: we go off into deep space with dreams of discovering some magnificent human history (or destiny) and those expectations are simply not met? Worse, it is this very arrogance which destroys us. Now that's one I want to see.
Rating: 
Summary: watch JOHN CARPENTER'S GHOSTS OF MARS instead
Review: This movie is simply boring and far beyond any enjoyment. The script is unexciting and boring, a silly plot. I enjoyed John Carpetner's Ghosts of Mars far more, though it is a over-bugeted B-movie.
Rating: 
Summary: CINEMATIC EXPLORATION FROM NONE OTHER THAN DE PALMA
Review: If you are the typical hormone-besotted male mind in today's audiences that are the target of Hollywood's recent fascination with flying bodies pummeling and kicking each other in air, this movie is not for you. For the rest of us above the age of consent, director Brian De Palma has created a precious return to the earlier and more enduring cinematic values of humanity. The story is a quantum leap above earlier forms of the genre. A fine, professional cast delivers superb performances in the rendering of the story. It is supported and enhanced beautifully by an excellent music score, and realized in seamless compositing between traditional art, computer graphics and photography. The story begins at the level of normal interchange between the explorers who are well represented. As we move along with the crew into the exploration of the most interesting planetary neighbor in our solar system, we encounter love, sacrifice, and valor. The result is the achievement of an uplifting and inspiring cinema experience, depicting a somewhat erudite theory that is growing in popularity among many of the scientists of its time. It culminates in the glory of incomparable possibilities. Highly recommended if you care for discerning cinema!
Rating:
Summary: The Comedy of the Year
Review: This movie is fall-down, belly-laughing hilarious. If only if it were intentional. The strangest thing about the movie is that as bad as it is, it wouldn't have taken much to turn it into a masterpiece. De Palma and whatever windbags wrote this tripe were only an inch or two away from making this a glorious satire. All they would have had to do is adjust the plot just a little, particularly in the third act. Importantly, though, De Palma would have to make sure he gave all of his actors the same stage directions, some of which would be as follows: Tim Robbins: "Remember, whatever you say, do it with a scowl, because people will think you're a space captain who's been around the asteroid belt a few times." I've always enjoyed Robbins's performances in movies, particularly The Player and Shawshank Redemption, but even with the wooden dialogue (how anyone could say "I love you, honey...G-damn I love you" with a straight face is beyond me), his performance was abysmal. If he got anything more than scale for that role, the studio should demand a refund. Gary Sinise: "first, be wistful; then, in the third act, think Richard Dreyfus." This was more a quality actor being handcuffed by a mind-numbing script. In Sinise's favor, he does get to say one of the most profoundly bad lines in the history of film: "They're us. We're them." In fact, the circumstances in which he says it [can you say "friendship ring"?] are just as horrific. The only thing that would cap off that scene is to have everyone start singing "Kumbaya." How De Palma could have looked at the dailies of those scenes and thought to himself, "This is great," even caught up in the midst of production, is baffling. The rest of the cast is equally forgettable. Connie Nielsen, despite considerable screen time, is given little to do except do an outer-space dance with Tim Robbins in the one remotely entertaining scene in the whole movie. Be on the lookout for Sinise's wistfulness in that scene, though. She barely sheds a tear for her departed husband, though frankly, honey, if he acts that way at home, I wouldn't be upset, either. De Palma should be credited, albeit in a backhanded way, for finding inventive ways to make allegedly thrilling scenes as exciting as a tax audit. He couldn't have come up with a more uninteresting way for one of the main characters to die than the manner in which he chose. He probably figured, "Hey, how bad could it be if I'm lifting from 2001? [heavy breathing included]" To be fair, he was "aided" in his endeavor by a musical score that sounds like it was plucked directly from Tomorrowland at Disney World. And the CGI effects are slick and ridiculous, right up to the alien's tears, which produced one of the loudest groans from me during the movie. Bottom line, I'd still get this movie on DVD, if it were in the sale rack. Like many Sci-Fi movies, it makes sense to watch it while intoxicated, but unlike any other Sci-Fi movie, this one is to be watched for its sheer, unintentional comedic value. If Mystery Science Theatre 3000 ever came back on air, it's first featured flick should be Mission to Mars. A gloriously bad failure in every conceivable way.
Rating:
Summary: Fair Warning
Review: Great movie up to the point where the big door goes up and they go into the solar system room. You'll know what I mean when you get to it. Now shut off the tape and imagine the rest. All that mystery and suspense so excellently maintained goes to pot in a meeting with a bad CGI alien and a horrible, awful, cliche ending that doesn't really explain anything. Just shut it off at that point and imagine your own ending and the movie will be tons better!
Rating: 
Summary: This movie is often misunderstood and underrated by viewers.
Review: Many feedback I see from others are concentrated on the script. For those people who underrated this film, I suggest you study space exploration first, and then rate this movie !!
I would say that this movie is scientifically accurate, the effects(especially the computer graphics), the story, the plot, the casting, the soundtrack are all very good. I would say that in order to accurately rate this movie, these criterias must be taken into consideration before giving it a "single star". The idea of humans originating from Mars may not be acceptable to some but that's exactly the whole point of this movie...to inspire the viewers about human exploration to Mars. It is true that the tests performed by Viking landers show no sign of life on Mars, but there is no evidence yet that there have never been any form of life on Mars. We would only know that when we send humans to Mars.
As we know, we already have the technological capability to actually send people to Mars. The only reason this is not being done is because of political reasons. This movie appeals for human exploration to Mars. Imagine how this movie visualized many of the the intriguing questions in a very entertaining way!!
Artificial Gravity (in order for humans not to sustain brain/bone damage due to low-gravity during long-range travel exposure), the huge long crater found on Mars that's about the size of United States, the face found in Cedonia-Mars (which is very very true - see NASA homepage for more details), the sudden explosion of life on earth!!
The only thing that would have perfected this movie was accurately visualizing low gravity on Mars.
This is good entertainment for both amateur and professional astronomers. I would enjoy watching this movie rather than Star Wars Episode 2!!!
Rating:
Summary: It's Really As Bad As They Say It Is
Review: This has to be one of the worst sci-fi movie to have been released in the last decade. The story line is absurd and the script is weak. No good actor could have saved this film from being the trash that it is. The good special effects don't help either: this movie is just plain stupid and not even worthy of one star!
Rating:
Summary: FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME!!!
Review: This is my most beloved movie. I have watched it over at the least 125 times. It is the most interesting movie ever! It's like everytime you watch it, you catch on to something new in the story line. Personally, I don't see why alot of the people on here are dissing it. When it comes to movies, it's very hard to please me. If you are going to take someones word, take mine, BUY IT! If not at the least rent it a the video rental store and see the movie for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Unfair
Review: Mission to Mars has had the unfortunate fate of being reviled by most critics, and then had the much more terrible fate of having the audiences buy into the critic opinions. Phrases like "cliche laden" and "completely unoriginal to the point of being parodic" are thrown at it like bombs at afghani hospitals. The truth is that this movie really isn't bad, it's just stuck somewhere between tribute movie, action sci-fi, and literary sci-fi, without benifiting from any category or creating positive aspects of its own. What it has going for it is that it is an entertaining but routine sci fi movie with decent acting and some amazing visuals, which puts it on a level higher than any other "routine" movie, regardless of genre. Sure it has some eye roll inducing non-tones and dialogue (somewhat akin to what you'd find in a Disney live action children's movie, like the Mighty Ducks), but it's worth a rental because regardless of how much it fails at, Mission to Mars is an entertaining movie with some fantastic graphics.
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